false 17866 8 When Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, it doesn't take him long to discover that someone's trying to kill him. It's the twenty-seventh century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities-including Robin's earlier self. <br><br> On the run from unknown enemies, he volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity, the Glasshouse, constructed to simulate a preaccelerated culture. Participants are assigned anonymized identities: it looks like the ideal hiding place for a posthuman on the run. But in this escape-proof environment, Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters-and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche. 930588 book 27 6 2006 Glasshouse total:713|5:148|4:330|3:180|2:46|1:9| 713 2701 1047 119 5 3 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 25 10:59:39 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 25 11:01:10 -0800 2007
As I've mentioned here before, although as an adult I try to maintain as varied a reading list as possible, I do naturally gravit...more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 05 11:36:55 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 31 15:33:26 -0700 2007
Well, with the exception of having a good first chapter.

***

And as it turns out, I loved this book. I've read several of his novels before, all the Hug...more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 20:25:55 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 00:50:25 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 04 17:18:40 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 04 17:18:40 -0800 2007 Neuromancer in 1985: I'm reading a work of science fiction that is so unique, so bleeding-edge, that I can barely get my head around it.

And then the excitement fades as I cont...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 14 20:43:35 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 05 03:10:32 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Aug 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 17 10:30:47 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 23 05:27:44 -0700 2008
I enjoyed the book, though it is clearly not for everyone. Stross writes push-the-envelope science fiction. The best way to describe it is as a cros...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jun 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 22:05:37 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 04 14:09:21 -0700 2008
"Glasshouse" deals with a character who isn't really sure who he is, thanks to memory surgery, gets involved with an experiment, and changes genders... all while trying to remember who he/she was, whether or not someo...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 04 23:58:07 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 21:08:29 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed May 13 14:43:45 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 14:43:45 -0700 2009 Charlie Stross is, for good or bad, viewed as one of the leading SF authors exploring the Singularity. Fans of that aspect of his writing will be pleased to know that his latest novel, Glasshouse,...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jan 07 19:27:47 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 19:29:37 -0800 2009 Glasshouse is a loose sequel to Accelerando, but you mostly need to know that for what the world is like. You might be able to read Glasshouse as a stand alone.

Anyway, it's late in the third millennium. Humanity has been kicked out of the Solar System by intelligent computer programs w...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 04:00:09 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 04:00:09 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 16 11:38:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 16 11:38:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jun 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 12 06:24:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 06:24:28 -0700 2009
The description of this book looks like a different take on the same or eerily familiar universe as Stross's Halting State.

Likewise, Implied Spaces grapp...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Aug 10 09:12:36 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 00:37:02 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 09:12:36 -0700 2009
The story takes place in a futuristic...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Sep 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 18:55:01 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 22:39:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 08:40:08 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 15 13:17:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 23 18:36:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 18:44:49 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon May 11 18:45:38 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 18:54:30 -0700 2009
As with many sci-fi plots, there is a corporation at the heart of the 'evil doings', and a small group of people who kno...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jun 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 03:13:05 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 19:13:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Thu Nov 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 11:09:58 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 11:34:53 -0800 2008
It took quite a number of pages before the nature of the society Stross is describing really clicked for me. The T-Gates vs. A-Gates idea, but it did finally gel. Definitely some interesting id...more...]]>